Doctors support Church’s call for removal of abortion pill from Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador, Nov 15, 2004 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The Medical Federation of Ecuador has joined the Catholic Church in denouncing the abortifacient nature of the morning after pill and has announced its support for calls to have the drug removed from pharmacies.
Responding to promoters of the drug who insist on denying its anti-life mechanism, Luis Sanchez, President of the Medical Federation of Ecuador, said, “The morning after pill cannot be classified as a contraceptive method because by its very nature it acts against something that has already been conceived.”

“To impede a fertilized ovum from implantation in the uterus is a micro abortion, since from that very moment life already exists,” Sanchez said.

Bishop Antonio Arregui, Vice President of the Bishops Conference of Ecuador, warned that “what is being sought here by the sale of these products is the introduction into Ecuadorian society of a certain insensitivity to what amounts to an attack on human life.”

Speaking to reporters, he insisted that the Catholic Church “will awaken consciences so that such a crime against a being in its first stage of existence will not be tolerated.”

He also underscored that “the Church hopes for a positive answer from the Ministry of Health so that this drug will taken off the market, and if this is not the case, we will have recourse to other actions.”